. >> so john mccain is heading to montana. >> ryssdal: and they carefully plot strategy to help shape the message for voters. >> also we can sort of highlight mccain's hypocrisy for campaigning with rehberg, because mccain is such a fiscal hawk and denny's such a big spender obviously being a member of the approps committee. >> yeah. it's not nearly as sexy as i think some people would want it to be. >> okay, thanks, folks. >> no, this is mostly public information. you just need to know where to look at it. and what you do is you put together the political history of a candidate-- every vote that they've ever taken, every political statement that they had made, any contradictions that you might find. business dealings that they might have that they might have had before being in congress. or even business dealings they had while they were in congress. >> i'll never support nor take a pay raise. >> ryssdal: here's where their research pays off. they share it with other outside groups, who then make ads that show up in montana-- ads like this one, made by a group called citizens for str